- Just how long has Kareem Abdul-Jabbar been around? Here`s one way to look at it: Two-hundred-and-eight other players were performing in the NBA in 1969, the year he joined the Bucks as a rookie; by the end of the 70s, only 18 of them remained, and in 1983, only he and Elvin Hayes. When Hayes retired from the Rockets in 1984, that left the Laker center as a sole survivor.